The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (a trilogy in five books) is one of the greatest series ever written. I like book one the best, but they all have quotes that make you think and laugh.

The following quote is from book five, Mostly Harmless. If you are wondering what is mostly harmless, it is the Earth, according to the entry Ford Prefect wrote for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, “a wholly remarkable book—perhaps the most remarkable, certainly the most successful book ever to come out of the great publishing corporations of Ursa Minor.”

“Anything that happens, happens.
Anything that, in happening, causes something else to happen, causes something else to happen.
Anything that, in happening, causes itself to happen again, happens again.
It doesn’t necessarily do it in chronological order, though.”

Douglas Adams

I can’t tell you what I’m reading because I’m sending it on to someone who reads this blog (so no spoilers,) but if you’ve paid attention to other days when I’ve been closed for reading you’ll know what it is. 

With all that has been going on, I give you permission to forget everything and read a good book too. Maybe it should become a holiday.

Don’t worry. I’ll be back tomorrow, as soon as I’m done reading.

I like ides, because lots of months have them. Ides means the middle of the month. Today is the famous one.

Remember, no matter what happens with the coronavirus, at least we are not being betrayed and killed by our friends. At least, I hope not.

I was going to share some quotes from Shakespeare, but they’re all about death, and while clever, a little depressing in today’s world. (Well, one of them was about tongues and tails, but we don’t need to go there.)

I wanted something with a more hopeful message, so I turned to my all-time favorite author, Roald Dahl. If you ever need a feel-good book (and this seems like the perfect time), I recommend James and the Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Matilda, George’s Marvelous Medicine, and first and foremost, Danny the Champion of the World*. In theory, these are kid’s books, but endearing, happy stories are for any age.

“Somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.” Roald Dahl.

*Amazon affiliate link

Just before the new year, a wonderful member of the Potterhead Running Club (PHRC) designed a fun reading challenge. Sixty badges could be earned by reading sixty books in sixty different categories. I finished my sixtieth book today (thus earning my sixtieth badge.)

I didn’t intend to do this challenge in 63 days, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. Every book I read fit a category, so I started knocking them off fast.

I read cookbooks, graphic novels, epic fantasies, mysteries, romances, non-fiction, YA novels, middle-grade novels, picture books, classics, and audiobooks. It was a lot of fun, but I’m ready to get back to my life and read books that I want to read instead of books I have to read (even though I enjoyed most of the books I read.)

What is super obvious is that if you give me a badge, I will do about anything. I’m running every day for a year to earn virtual badges. I’m running three marathons in three weekends to earn a virtual badge (not to mention all the real medals.)

If I could just find programs that gave out virtual badges for weight loss and publishing books, I’d have met all my goals. (I have tried a few of the weight loss programs, but they were sooooo stingy with their badges, I never stuck with it. Come on, it’s not like they cost anything.)

Do you have any crazy goals you are working on? Do virtual badges entice you? How do you reward yourself? Someone once told me I was like Jeremy the crow from Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH because I am obsessed with shiny objects. Guilty as charged.

I always wanted to, and finally listened to a translation on Audible. It was amazing, and like nothing I expected. Anyone who studies writing learns about Gilgamesh. However, hearing the story itself was so much more.

I highly recommend the version I heard. The narrator was excellent. You can get it from Audible. The story itself is only about two hours long. The other two hours are an essay by the translator, Stephen Mitchell. I appreciate that they put the essay after the story, and I loved how he went into the decisions that translators have to make.

One of the things I liked best about the story was its repetitive style. At one point, Gilgamesh has four or five dreams. The verse leading up to each dream is identical, and by the third dream, I could repeat it myself. This helped me understand how oral stories were passed from person to person, and I felt part of the history of Gilgamesh.

One warning, there is a lot of sex talk in the book, and they don’t hold anything back. It might not be appropriate for kids. There may be other translations that toned that part down. It’s mostly at the beginning of the story and is important to the plot. I can understand why this translator didn’t mince words.

“National Margarita Day is February 22. How do you go about getting a National Day? Joe asked if it had to go in front of Congress. How does that work?”

This is an excellent question because I talk about holidays all the time. On the Footle and Grok podcast, I devote every Monday to the topic. Today, I will explain the different types of holidays and how they are made.

First of all, anyone can declare a holiday. The trick is making it popular. For example, two guys decided that September 16 should be Talk like a Pirate Day. And so it was. But it wasn’t until they enlisted Dave Barry’s help that the holiday became well known and celebrated by other people.

Some people copyright their holidays. In theory, that means we have to pay them to celebrate. That makes no sense to me. I stay away from copyrighted holidays, and so we all lose.

Next are national holidays. They sound official, right? The truth is anyone can call their holiday “national.” It doesn’t mean anything, it just sounds important.

If you are a business or an organization, you can create a “National” holiday and get it registered with the National Day Calendar. Then your holiday becomes easier to find and more popular. National Margarita Day, which Judy mentioned in her question, was created by Karma Tequila. 

Some countries have a National Holiday, where everyone gets the day off. We here in America do not. Lots of people work on holidays.

There are ten federal holidays. (None of these holidays have “National” in their title.) These are created either by Presidental proclamation or a vote by Congress. Non-essential government workers, schools, and banks take the day off.

Creating a federal holiday is difficult. One way to have success is to start in the states. If you can get several states to celebrate your new holiday, then Congress might notice.

You can also start an online petition, but this can take time, so be patient. Remember, it took Sarah Hale* thirty-eight years and thousands of letters before Abraham Lincoln finally made Thanksgiving a federal holiday.

There you have it. Anyone can create a holiday, and add the name “National” if they choose. It’s up to you to spread the word. Businesses and non-profits can register their national holiday for more exposure. If a holiday becomes popular enough, then it can be adopted by the states and voted on by Congress. This doesn’t happen very often, or else we’d never get any work done.

I hope this answers your question**, Judy. I have added links throughout this post so you can learn more. Everyone should make a holiday and spread happiness. What holiday would you create?

*Amazon Affiliate Link

**I would love for more of my readers to send in questions. Answering them is fun.

Many thanks to everyone who made suggestions. There were a lot of good ideas. However, I couldn’t seem to find one that spoke to me. I spent several hours playing with words and phrases.

Then a couple of days ago, I was reading All Marketers are Liars by Seth Godin (an amazingly insightful book,) and he asked, “What is your story?” Without thinking, I said out loud, “I want to feed people’s curiosity.” It was like the clouds cleared, and the sun shone brightly. That was precisely what I was trying to do with my blog and podcast.

But it seemed too simple. I was sure “Feed your curiosity” was used by some influencer. I googled it and found that while the phrase is used in lots of article titles, no one had used it exclusively.

Even then, I played around with synonyms of the word “feed.” Nothing felt quite right, and I realized that my first response, while simple, was true. I want to help people feed their curiosity with Footle and Grok. Nothing more and nothing less. I had my tagline.

I’d love for you to check out the website and the new tagline. (If you see my old tagline somewhere online, let me know.) I’m learning to use Cafepress and hope to soon have a store to support Footle and Grok.

Stay tuned and feed your curiosity… often.

That probably makes me weird, but growing up in Southern California gave me several opportunities to experience some rocking and rolling, which I loved. Of course, none of them were the Big One.

Now, I don’t want millions of dollars of property damage to happen and people to die, but the San Andreas fault is eventually going to shift, and Los Angeles will never be the same. It might be better in the long run, but it won’t be the same.

If you have an interest in earthquakes or you live in southern California, I highly recommend the Big One: Your Survival Guide.  This podcast covers the personal, scientific, economic, and long term effects of a big earthquake.

Lucy Jones, a USGS seismologist, was on my TV whenever there was a seismic event in the 1990s. She wrote a book called The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)*, which is about large earthquakes throughout history and how they affected the communities hit. Dr. Jones and her team have developed plans to help southern California survive the Big One when it hits. She also contributed to the Big One podcast.

I thoroughly enjoyed this podcast and recommend it to anyone who lives in a seismically active area. I don’t get as many earthquakes here in Washington as I did growing up (mores the pity), but we have our own Big One on the horizon. This podcast has helpful advice for everyone.

*Amazon affiliate link

If you don’t know Scott, he is an ultra-marathoner who broke the northbound, supported AT record in 2015. He didn’t keep the record for long. Instead, Scott helped Karl Meltzer, a friend who had supported him in 2015, set a southbound, supported AT record in 2016.

I’d like to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail someday. I’m not sure whether I want to do it northbound or southbound, as both directions have positives and negatives. I thought I would do when I turned 50 in 2023, but I’m going to run the Great Wall of China Marathon instead.

Scott finished the trail in 46 days. The current, supported, northbound, AT record is 41 days. That’s amazing. The trail is about 2,200 miles long, goes through 14 states, and gains and loses more than 89 miles in elevation. It takes an average of 165 days to complete the thru-hike (that is a half-marathon a day.)  The amount of planning needed would be huge, but it would be a fantastic project.

North* is a great book, although I admit I liked the end better than the beginning. As with many running books, it is a quasi-memoir and deals with personal problems. If you want to read a more light-hearted, yet just as heart-stopping a book about the Appalachain Trail, check out A Walk In the Woods* by Bill Bryson. (Or watch the movie, but the book is much better.)

What do you think about taking six months to thru-hike the Appalachian Trail? Would you do it?

*Amazon affiliate links